Due to positive reader feedback, we have decided to bring back the labour- and time-saving tips that were a regular feature in the Irish Farmers Journal 10 years ago.

We are asking readers to send us pictures of inventions, ideas or initiatives that help make life easier on their farms and which may help other farmers to do so, no matter what the farming enterprise.

The best entry that we receive each week will be featured in the paper and that person will also receive a €50 One4all voucher for their effort. Ideas that promote farm safety will be given special consideration.

No idea is too small once it makes a positive contribution to your farm.

To send us pictures of your idea, you can email pvarley@farmersjournal.ie or text your pictures to the Irish Farmers Journal on 00353 (86)-836 6465 via Whatsapp or MMS.

The following are examples of ideas we received in the past.

Picture one

Having a small water trough with a ballcock attached set up on the back of a tanker is an easy way to provide water where there is no fixed source, especially on out-farms.

Picture two

In 2004, a farmer showed us how he uses an abandoned shopping trolley to help move tools around the farm. The welder, the drill, angle grinder, cables and tools all stay in the trolley. When they are needed to carry out maintenance, the trolley is just wheeled to where work is being done. The important thing to note is that there is a fire extinguisher in the trolley, so wherever the welder and grinder goes, it is always by their side in case of emergency.

Picture three and four

Feeding calves can be a big job in the spring. This farmer feeds 80 calves and gets them bedded in 15 minutes. The milk is transported from the dairy with the tractor.

The calves are in two separate groups of 40 and there is a feeder that is left in with each group.

The milk is pumped by submersible pump via the yellow pipes. The two pipes are supported off the ground and left there each time to avoid wasting time moving pipes and trying to battle through hungry calves to fill the feeder. Five litres of milk is pumped in per calf at 10am each morning. The milk is normally gone by 3pm. Calves go out to the group at five days of age and have the run of a one-acre paddock. To give the calves shelter, two sheds were built with galvanised sheets. They measured 19ft by 20ft and 6ft high.

Twenty round bales were cut in a semicircle around the face of the shed at the start of the calving period. A bale is pulled down every second day to bed the calves. This can be done when the calves are busy feeding.